At this moment, Xiao Tangqiu felt despair. There were always dead-end roads and it seemed that this time, he couldn’t avoid it!

Under the water, the woman in the red kimono got closer and closer to him with her half gorgeous and half horrifying face.

Finally, those bonelessly soft and extremely cold hands wrapped around his neck and waist again. At this moment, the air in Xiao Tangqiu lungs was completely exhausted and he closed his eyes in despair.

Just before Xiao Tangqiu completely lost consciousness, a shadow suddenly appeared in front of him and something warm and soft pressed against his lips, pushing a breath of air into his mouth.

His lungs, which were on the verge of exhaustion, were finally revived. The warm and dry fresh air made him sober up and he subconsciously wanted to ask for more.

Saved! Finally saved!

Was he saved?

In this kind of desperate situation, who would have come to rescue him?

Xiao Tangqiu’s mind was in a state of chaos, and when he dizzily opened his eyes, he met the dark eyes of Shen Yuan.

It turned out to be Shen Yuan.

It really was Shen Yuan…

Xiao Tangqiu felt a sense of “of course” and fatalism. Shen Yuan’s appearance felt unexpected… but also an expected feeling.

Finally having escaped death, he couldn’t help greedily sucking in the air in Shen Yuan’s mouth. It was only a moment later that he realized that they were still at the bottom of the river and surrounded a group of drowned ghosts. He hurriedly pushed Shen Yuan away.

Xiao Tangqiu regained a little control and quickly took out the advanced ghost exorcism talisman to exorcise ghosts. But when he turned around, he found that the drowned ghosts and the gorgeous woman in the red kimono had disappeared… The only ones left under the water were Shen Yuan and him.

Shen Yuan looked at him through the river. In the poor lighting, his face was half-lit and half-dark. Before Xiao Tangqiu could fully make out the outline of the face in front of his eyes, an arm wrapped around his waist.

It was Shen Yuan.

Shen Yuan frowned, seeming dissatisfied with Xiao Tangqiu’s pushing action just now and hugged his waist and swam up towards the surface.

Xiao Tangqiu finally returned to the ground and quickly took huge breaths of fresh air. He sighed from the bottom of his heart. It felt good to be alive!

“Qiuqiu, what happened just now?” Tang Mianmian leaned over and asked worriedly, “We were walking along just fine but you suddenly rushed to the river and jumped down. We couldn’t stop it! It was like you were crazy! No, it’s like you saw some treasure!”

Duan Hongzhen crossed his arms and asked with bad intentions, “I’m afraid it’s not a treasure, but a beautiful woman, right? Just like the rain woman that day?”

As soon as Duan Hongzhen spoke, Shen Yuan’s expression sank.

Xiao Tangqiu felt a lot of pressure for a moment, but still bit the bullet and spoke, “I did seem to have seen something unclean…”

He succinctly stated what happened just now. When he talked about the woman in the red kimono, Shen Yuan’s expression was as dark as the bottom of a pot.

After he finished speaking, Duan Hongzhen made fun of him, “Before, it was a beauty in a white kimono, this time it is a beauty in a red kimono. I didn’t expect you to be so seductive that all the ghost beauties are watching you.”

Tang Mianmian looked surprised and asked, “You said that when we were crossing the bridge, you suddenly saw a woman in a red kimono in the middle of the bridge? That’s not right! We didn’t cross the bridge at all, there is no bridge here!”

Xiao Tangqiu was taken aback and quickly turned his head and looked around. As expected, there was no bridge in sight. There was only a dark and deep river between the two banks.

The river seemed to have stopped flowing. Under the darkness of night, it was like stagnant water.

At this moment, a gust of chilling wind blew and Xiao Tangqiu, who was soaked, instantly felt a chill go down his spine.

Yu Fuling looked at Xiao Tangqiu and Shen Yuan, who had just climbed up from the river, and frowned, “You should change your clothes first.”

Xiao Tangqiu was about to move, but the always silent Miko suddenly spoke, “No, there is indeed a bridge here.”

Everyone was stunned. Kisaragi paused before continuing to say with a solemn expression, “To be precise, there should have been a bridge. It was an old bridge that has been built for many years, the exact age of the bridge can’t be counted. The residents of Hundred Ghost Village have cherished and protected this bridge for generations, and this bridge was also an important passage for Hundred Ghost Village to the outside world… Until a rare flood broke the bridge a few years ago and the bridge was broken.”

Xiao Tangqiu followed Kisaragi’s line of sight, and there were indeed a few bluestone slabs marking the broken bridge not far away. It looked like the bridge was broken completely back then.

After Xiao Tangqiu calmed down from his near-death experience, he remembered something, “The woman in the red kimono… is it Hashihime?”

Xue Junli pushed his glasses, “It does sound a bit like it. Hovering on a bridge, dragging pedestrians across the bridge to drown…”

Tang Mianmian asked, “What is Hashihime? Is it also in the Hundred Ghost Night Parade?”

Xiao Tangqiu nodded, “It is said that after a prostitute who was unable to stay with her lover fell into the water and drowned, she turned into a ghost and wandered on the bridge she drowned from.”

Tang Mianmian murmured, “The bridge is already broken and she has nothing and no one left. Why is she still so restless?”

Xiao Tangqiu smiled and didn’t know what to say. If Shen Yuan hadn’t come to rescue him just now, he’s afraid he would have become one of the countless drowned ghosts at the bottom of the river.

Duan Hongzhen cut in, not feeling any pressure from adding oil to the fire as a bystander, “You really have a trouble-attracting body. Why are you always entangled by beautiful women? I really couldn’t tell that your luck in romance is pretty good.”

Xiao Tangqiu silently glanced at Shen Yuan’s dark expression and said quietly, “They are obviously picking on soft persimmons. Who made me the weakest among us?”

Shen Yuan’s complexion looked better but he was still unhappy, “With me around, they better not even think about it!”

Xiao Tangqiu quickly changed the subject, “Alright, let’s hurry and change clothes! Aren’t you cold?”

In consideration of the presence of ladies, the two of them went off a ways before they changed their clothes.

After Xiao Tangqiu quickly changed, he turned around and saw that Shen Yuan had already finished changing and was staring at him.

Even though Xiao Tangqiu’s heart was steady, he became embarrassed being stared at by Shen Yuan. “…What’s there to look at, is it good looking?”

Shen Yuan nodded, “Looks good.”

Xiao Tangqiu was speechless, “…We are all the same, what’s there to see.”

Shen Yuan thought for a while and answered the question seriously, “You’re a size smaller, very cute, small everywhere.”

Xiao Tangqiu blushed, “Don’t go too far! Our height is not that different!”

Shen Yuan was about to explain with a serious look, “It’s there…”

Xiao Tangqiu quickly covered his mouth with and exclaimed sternly, “Alright! We still have important things to do! Let’s go!”

As soon as he released his hand, Shen Yuan continued and said, “Everywhere is cute.”

Xiao Tangqiu quickly peeled a piece of candy, threw it into Shen Yuan’s mouth to block it, “Eat candy!”

Seeing that Shen Yuan finally stopped teasing him, Xiao Tangqiu said quietly, “You little rascal, learning bad things.”

Shen Yuan cheeks were filled with candy and mumbled, “…I’m telling the truth.”

Xiao Tangqiu glared at Shen Yuan, turned his head, and returned to the group.

“Okay, let’s go quickly, otherwise, we’ll likely be back in the tunnel again soon.” Xue Junli glanced at Xiao Tangqiu, then at the Shen Yuan who followed as he spoke gravely.

Watches from the City of the Abyss could not be brought into instances. They didn’t have any timing tools so they could only rely on their internal clocks and estimations. People who were not sensitive to time might be out of luck in this instance and completely blindsided. Fortunately, they could still judge an approximate time based on the level of brightness in the sky.

Although there should still be some time before dawn, they did not dare to delay and soon continued on the journey.

This time they did not encounter any more incidents and were able to smoothly follow Kisaragi to a building.

Xiao Tangqiu looked up and saw that it was clearly a school. The front building was a teaching building and each floor of the building were classrooms.

A school? What did the Miko bring them to this place for?